Apparatus, systems, and methods for on-chip spectroscopy using optical switches

ABSTRACT

A spectrometer includes an interferometer having a first interference arm and a second interference arm to produce interference patterns from incident light. At least one of the interference arms includes a series of cascaded optical switches connected by two (or more) waveguides of different lengths. Each optical switch directs the incident light into one waveguide or another, thereby changing the optical path length difference between the first interference arm and the second interference arm. This approach can be extended to multi-mode incident light by placing parallel interferometers together, each of which performs spectroscopy of one single mode in the multi-mode incident light. To maintain the compactness of the spectrometer, adjacent interferometers can share one interference arm.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/986,098, filed May 22, 2018, entitled “Apparatus, Systems, andMethods for On-Chip Spectroscopy Using Optical Switches,” which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/429,321, now U.S. Pat. No.10,006,809, filed Feb. 10, 2017, and entitled “Apparatus, Systems, andMethods for On-Chip Spectroscopy Using Optical Switches,” which in turnclaims priority to U.S. Application No. 62/293,399, filed Feb. 10, 2016,and entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ON-CHIP SPECTROMETRY.” Each ofthese applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

A spectrometer is an instrument that quantifies the spectral powerdensity of a polychromatic optical input. Existing spectrometersgenerally fall into two categories: spectrum splitting spectrometers andFourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectrometers. A typical spectrumsplitting spectrometer spectrally splits the polychromatic input intodifferent channels using a dispersive element (e.g., a diffractiongrating, a prism, or a random scattering medium) and then measures thespectral density at each channel. In contrast, an FTIR spectrometerusually employs an interferometer with a variable arm path length toextract the spectral density from an interferogram. Compared to spectrumsplitting spectrometers, F spectrometers can offer enhancedsignal-to-noise ratio (SNR), since the optical input is not split intomultiple channels. This advantage is also referred to as the Fellgettadvantage or the multiplex advantage.

Conventional FTIR spectrometers usually include discrete opticalelements, such as gratings, prisms, and beam splitters, and thereforecan be bulky and costly. These challenges may be addressed by on-chipspectrometers developed by photonic integration technologies. Moston-chip spectrometers are based on spectrum splitting using arrayedwaveguide gratings, Echelle gratings, micro-resonators, randomscattering medium, or a combination of these dispersive elements. As aresult, these on-chip spectrometers usually lack the Fellgett advantage.

Photonic integration technologies can also be used in on-chip Fspectrometer, e.g., to realize the arm path length change either bymicroelectromechanical systems (MEMS) tuning, electro-optic, orthermo-optic tuning. MEMS tuning typically uses mechanical moving partsthat can increase complexity of the resulting system and can compromisesystem robustness. Electro-optic and thermo-optic tuning normally do notuse moving parts to change arm path lengths, but the tuning range inthese techniques can also be limited, thereby compromising theperformance of the resulting spectrometers.

For example, in the near-infrared regime, liquid crystal waveguides canoffer a maximum effective index tuning range (e.g., on the order of10⁻²). With 10 cm long waveguide, this tuning range of refractive indexcan provide a spectral resolution of about 10 cm⁻¹. However, the longwaveguide length can also increase the device power consumption fortuning. In addition, in the mid-infrared regime (e.g., 2.5 μm<λ<25 μm),liquid crystals can become opaque and electro-optic tuning can provideonly a small Δn (e.g., up to 10⁻³). An alternative to electro-optictuning can be thermo-optical tuning, but thermos-optical tuning canintroduce undesirable blackbody thermal radiation noise. Accordingly,the spectral resolution can deteriorate to an even lower value of about100 cm⁻¹ for a 10 cm-long interferometer. The apparent trade-off betweenspectral resolution, device footprint, and power consumption thereforeimposes a challenge in developing new spectrometers.

SUMMARY

Apparatus, systems, and methods described herein are generally relatedto Fourier transform spectroscopy. In one example, a spectrometerincludes a beam splitter to split incident light into a first portionand a second portion. The spectrometer also includes a firstinterference arm and a second interference arm. The first interferencearm is in optical communication with the beam splitter to receive thefirst portion of the incident light. The first interference arm includesa first optical switch switchable between a first state and a secondstate, a first reference waveguide having a first optical path length L₁to receive the first portion of the incident light when the firstoptical switch is in the first state, and a first variable waveguidehaving a second optical path length L₂, different than the first opticalpath length L₁, to receive the first portion of the incident light whenthe first optical switch is in the second state. The second interferencearm is in optical communication with the beam splitter to receive thesecond portion of the incident light. The spectrometer also includes adetector, in optical communication with the first interference arm andthe second interference arm, to detect interference of the first portionof the incident light from the first interference arm and the secondportion of the incident light from the second interference arm.

In another example, a method includes splitting incident light into afirst portion and a second portion. The method also includes couplingthe first portion of the incident light in a first interference arm andcoupling the second portion of the incident light in a secondinterference arm. The first interference arm includes a first opticalswitch, a first reference waveguide having a first optical path lengthL₁, and a first variable waveguide having a second optical path lengthL₂ different than the first optical path length L₁. The method alsoincludes actuating the first optical switch to couple the first portionof the incident light through the first reference waveguide so as togenerate a first optical path difference between the first interferencearm and the second interference arm, and detecting first interferencebetween the first portion of the incident light and the second portionof the incident light when the first portion of the incident light isguided through the first reference waveguide. The method also includesactuating the first optical switch to couple the first portion of theincident light through the first variable waveguide so as to generate asecond optical path difference between the first interference arm andthe second interference arm and detecting second interference betweenthe first portion of the incident light and the second portion of theincident light when the first portion of the incident light is guidedthrough the first variable waveguide.

In yet another example, a Fourier transform spectrometer includes a beamsplitter to split the incident light into a first portion and a secondportion. The spectrometer also includes a first interference arm and asecond interference arm. The first interference arm is in opticalcommunication with the beam splitter, to receive the first portion ofthe incident light. The first interference arm includes j/2 opticalswitches, where j is an even integer. Each optical switch in the j/2optical switches is switchable between a first state and a second state.The first interference arm also includes j/2 reference waveguides, wherean nth reference waveguide in the j/2 reference waveguides receives thefirst portion of the incident light when an nth optical switch in thej/2 optical switches is in the first state, where n=1, 2, . . . , j/2.The first interference arm also includes j/2 variable waveguides, wherean nth variable waveguide in the j/2 variable waveguides receiving thefirst portion of the incident light when the nth optical switch in thej/2 optical switches is in the second state. The second interferencearm, in optical communication with the beam splitter to receive thesecond portion of the incident light. The second interference armincludes j/2 optical switches and each optical switch in the j/2 opticalswitches is switchable between the first state and the second state. Thesecond interference arm also includes j/2 reference waveguides and anmth reference waveguide in the j/2 reference waveguides receives thesecond portion of the incident light when an mth optical switch in thej/2 optical switches is in the first state, where m=1, 2, . . . , j/2.The second interference arm also includes j/2 variable waveguides and anmth variable waveguide in the j/2 variable waveguides receiving thesecond portion of the incident light when the mth optical switch in thej/2 optical switches is in the second state. The spectrometer alsoincludes a beam combiner that further includes a first input port toreceive the first portion of the incident light from the firstinterference arm, a second input port to receive the second portion ofthe incident light from the second interference arm, a first output portto deliver a first output, and a second output port to deliver a secondoutput. The spectrometer further includes a first detector, in opticalcommunication with the first port of the beam combiner, to detect thefirst output, and a second detector, in optical communication with thesecond port of the beam combiner, to detect the second output.

In yet another example, a spectrometer includes a mode transformer toreceive incident light and split the incident light into a first spatialmode and a second spatial mode. The spectrometer also includes a firstinterferometer to receive the first spatial mode and a secondinterferometer to receive the second spatial mode. The firstinterferometer includes a first beam splitter to receive the firstspatial mode and split the first spatial mode into a first portion and asecond portion. The first interferometer also includes a firstinterference arm, in optical communication with the first beam splitter,to receive the first portion of the first spatial mode. The firstinterference arm includes a first optical switch switchable between afirst state and a second state, a first reference waveguide having afirst optical path length L₁ to receive the first portion of theincident light when the first optical switch is in the first state, anda first variable waveguide having a second optical path length L₂,different than the first optical path length L₁, to receive the firstportion of the incident light when the first optical switch is in thesecond state. The first interferometer also includes a secondinterference arm, in optical communication with the first beam splitter,to receive the second portion of the incident light. The firstinterferometer further includes a first detector, in opticalcommunication with the first interference arm and the secondinterference arm, to detect first interference of the first portion ofthe first spatial mode from the first interference arm and the secondportion of the first spatial mode from the second interference arm. Thesecond interferometer includes a second beam splitter to receive thesecond spatial mode and split the second spatial mode into a thirdportion and a fourth portion. The second interferometer also includes athird interference arm to receive the third portion of the secondspatial mode and the first interference arm to receive the fourthportion of the second spatial mode. The second interferometer furtherincludes a second detector, in optical communication with the firstinterference arm and the third interference arm, to detect secondinterference of the third portion of the second spatial mode from thethird interference arm and the fourth portion of the second spatial modefrom the first interference arm.

It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing conceptsand additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided suchconcepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being partof the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. In particular, allcombinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of thisdisclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subjectmatter disclosed herein. It should also be appreciated that terminologyexplicitly employed herein that also may appear in any disclosureincorporated by reference should be accorded a meaning most consistentwith the particular concepts disclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The skilled artisan will understand that the drawings primarily are forillustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of theinventive subject matter described herein. The drawings are notnecessarily to scale; in some instances, various aspects of theinventive subject matter disclosed herein may be shown exaggerated orenlarged in the drawings to facilitate an understanding of differentfeatures. In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer tolike features (e.g., functionally similar and/or structurally similarelements).

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a spectrometer including two interferencearms and an optical switch to control the optical path length of one ofthe interference arms.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic of a spectrometer including an interferometerwith optical switches in both arms.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a spectrometer including two detectors toincrease the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio.

FIG. 4A shows a schematic of a spectrometer using Mach-Zehnderinterferometers as optical switches to adjust optical path lengths.

FIG. 4B shows a schematic of an optical switch that can be used in thespectrometer shown in FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic of a spectrometer using Mach-Zehnderinterferometers as optical switches and two detectors to increase theS/N ratio.

FIGS. 6A-6C show calculated insertion loss, arm length, and resolution,respectively, as a function of the number of optical switches used in aspectrometer.

FIG. 7A shows a schematic of a spectrometer including a mode transformerand multiple interferometers for spectroscopy using multi-mode inputlight.

FIG. 7B shows a schematic of a mode transformer that can be used in thespectrometer shown in FIG. 7A.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method of spectroscopy using optical switches toscan optical path length differences between two arms of aninterferometer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

To increase the tuning range of optical path lengths in spectrometerswhile maintaining the compactness and low power consumption, apparatus,systems, and methods described herein employ optical switches to changethe optical path lengths by directing incident light into waveguideshaving different lengths. A spectrometer based on this approach includesan interferometer having a first interference arm (also referred to asan interferometer arm or an arm) and a second interference arm toproduce interference patterns from incident light, which is to becharacterized by the spectrometer. At least one of the interference armsincludes a series of cascaded optical switches connected by two (ormore) waveguides of different lengths. Each optical switch can directthe incident light into one waveguide or another, thereby changing theoptical path length difference between the first interference arm andthe second interference arm.

To quantitatively evaluate the advantage of the optical switch approachto tune optical path length differences, a generic FTIR interferometerstructure an initial arm length L₀ and maximum optical path lengthdifference between the two arms ΔL₀ can be considered. Without beingbound by any particular theory or mode of operation, the Rayleighcriterion can be used to estimate the spectral resolution Δv (in wavenumber) by:Δv=1/ΔL ₀  (1)The corresponding spectral resolution in the wavelength domain isapproximated as:Δv=λ ² /ΔL ₀  (2)where λ is the center wavelength.

In electro-optical tuning or thermos-optical tuning, the inducedwaveguide effective index change can be denoted as Δn, and theinterferometer arm optical path length change is then ΔL₀=Δn·L₀. Asdiscussed above, the limitations in Δn can limit the spectral resolutionthat can be practically achieved by a conventional spectrometer.

Unlike conventional on-chip Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR)spectrometers, this optical switch based approach changes the opticalpath length difference by directing the incident light into differentwaveguides having different wavelengths using the cascaded switches.Direct modification of the waveguide path is more effective for changingthe optical path length than index modulation because this approach isnot limited by the small magnitude of index perturbation Δn, asindicated by Equations (1) and (2). Components in the spectrometer, suchas optical switches, waveguides, and beam combiners, can be fabricatedinto a single chip using, for example, semiconductor manufacturingtechniques. Therefore, this approach is compatible with compact on-chipintegration and can therefore offer superior spectral resolutioncompared to prior on-chip FTIR devices.

The above approach can also be extended to carrying out spectroscopyusing multi-mode incident light. In this case, a spectrometer includes amulti-mode waveguide as the input. Incident light from the multi-modewaveguide is transmitted through a mode transformer, which splits themulti-mode incident light into multiple single-mode light beams. Eachsingle-mode light beam is directed to a corresponding single-modewaveguide that is connected to a respective interferometer. The numberof interferometers can be equal to the number of single-mode waveguides.The interference arms include a series of cascaded optical switchesconnected by waveguides of varying lengths. In addition, adjacentinterferometers can share interferences arms via optical switches (see,e.g., FIG. 7A below) so as to increase the compactness of thespectrometer.

Spectrometers Including Optical Switches

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a spectrometer 100 including an opticalswitch 112 to change the optical path length difference between the twointerferences arms 110 and 120 in the spectrometer 100. The spectrometer100 includes a beam splitter 130 to receive incident light 105 andsplits the incident light 105 into a first portion 106 a and a secondportion 106 b. The first portion 106 a is directed to the firstinterference arm 110 and the second portion 106 b is directed to thesecond interference arm 120. The optical switch 112 is switchablebetween a first state and a second state (e.g., an ON state and an OFFstate, a HIGH state and a LOW state, or any other terms used in theart). In one state, the optical switch 112 directs the first portion 106a of the incident light 105 into a variable waveguide 115 a having afirst optical path length L₁. In the other state, the optical switch 112directs the first portion 106 a of the incident light 105 into areference waveguide 115 b having a second optical path length L₂, whichis different from the first optical path length L₁. During the switchingof the optical switch 112, the optical path length of the secondinterference arm 120 can be maintained at a fixed value. Therefore, theswitching of the optical switch 112 generates two different optical pathlength differences between the first interference arm 110 and the secondinterference arm 120.

The first interference arm 110 also includes an optional beam combiner116 coupled to the variable waveguide 115 a and the reference waveguide115 b to collect the first portion 106 a of the incident light 105 fromthe variable waveguide 115 a or the reference waveguide 115 b. Adetector 140 is used to detect the interference between the firstportion 106 a of the incident light 105 and the second portion 106 b ofthe incident light 105 at each state of the optical switch 112. In oneexample, as shown in FIG. 1, the first portion 106 a and the secondportion 106 b are transmitted directly to the detector 140. In anotherexample, a beam combiner (not shown in FIG. 1) can be used to combinethe two portions 106 a and 106 b of the incident light 105 beforetransmitting them to the detector 140.

The spectrometer 100 can be realized on a variety of platforms. In oneexample, the spectrometer 100 can be realized on a silicon-on-insulator(SOI) platform. In another example, the spectrometer 100 can be realizedon a silicon (oxy)nitride platform. In yet another example, thespectrometer 100 can be realized on a III-V semiconductor platform. Inyet another example, the spectrometer 100 can be realized on a sapphireplatform. In yet another example, the spectrometer 100 can be realizedon a polymer platform. In yet another example, the spectrometer 100 canbe realized on a LiNbO₃ platform.

Various types of photonic devices can be used to construct the opticalswitch 112. In one example, the optical switch 112 can include adirectional coupler. In another example, the optical switch 112 includesa Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) (see, e.g., FIG. 4B below), wherephase shifters are included in each arm of the MZI Input light into theMZI can be delivered out of the MZI through one output port or the otheroutput port by changing the phase settings of the two arms, asunderstood in the art. The phase tuning can be achieved byelectro-optical tuning, magneto-optical tuning, thermo-optical tuning,or any other method known in the art.

In yet another example, the optical switch 112 can include a multi-modeinterferometer (MMI), which can include a first input port to receivethe input light, a first output port connected to a first waveguide, anda second output port connected to a second waveguide. Changing therefractive index distribution in the first and second waveguides cancause the MMI to output the received light via the first output port orthe second output port. More details of optical switches based on MMIcan be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,220, entitled “Optical switch usingmultimode interferometer, and optical demultiplexer,” which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

In yet another example, the optical switch 112 can include a ringresonator disposed between two waveguides evanescently coupled to thering resonator. Selection of output waveguide can be achieved bychanging the refractive index distribution in the ring resonator and inthe two waveguides. More details of optical switches based on ringresonators can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,400,798, entitled “Opticallycontrolled photonic switch,” which is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

In yet another example, the optical switch 112 can include a plasmonicswitch (e.g., a hybrid plasmonic switch). For example, a plasmonicswitch can include a middle waveguide disposed between two sidewaveguides evanescently coupled to the middle waveguide. The middlewaveguide can include a nanometer-thin indium tin oxide (ITO) layersandwiched inside a Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) structure. Classicaloptical coupling (e.g., waveguide-to-waveguide) can be enhanced by thedeep-subwavelength optical mode of the hybridized plasmons, i.e. theplasmonic MOS mode. The switching functionality can be achieved bychanging the imaginary part of the refractive index of the ITO layer byseveral orders of magnitude, thereby shifting the effective index of theoptical mode and altering the modal overlap between neighboringwaveguides. More details of hybrid plasmonic switch can be found in U.S.Pat. No. 9,529,158, entitled “Silicon-based, broadband,waveguide-integrated electro-optical switch,” which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

The variable waveguide 115 a and the reference waveguide 115 b can bemade of various materials, depending on, for example, the materialplatform. In one example, the variable waveguide 115 a and the referencewaveguide 115 b can include silicon. In another example, the variablewaveguide 115 a and the reference waveguide 115 b can include siliconoxides (e.g., SiO₂). In yet another example, the variable waveguide 115a and the reference waveguide 115 b can include silicon nitrides (e.g.,SiN or Si₃N₄). In yet another example, variable waveguide 115 a and thereference waveguide 115 b can include germanium. In one example, thevariable waveguide 115 a and the reference waveguide 115 b can includethe same material. In another example, the variable waveguide 115 a andthe reference waveguide 115 b can include different materials.

The optical path length L₂ of the reference waveguide 115 b can be about2 μm to about 1 mm (e.g., about 2 μm, about 5 μm, about 10 μm, about 20μm, about 50 μm, about 100 μm, about 200 μm, about 500 μm, or about 1mm, including any values and sub ranges in between). In one example, theoptical path length L₁ of the variable waveguide 115 a can be greaterthan the length L₂ of the reference waveguide 115 b. In this case, theratio of L₁/L₂ can be about 0.01 to about 0.9 (e.g., about 0.01, about0.02, about 0.05, about 0.1, about 0.2, about 0.3, about 0.4, about 0.5,about 0.6, about 0.7, about 0.8, or about 0.9, including any values andsub ranges in between). In another example, the optical path length L₁of the variable waveguide 115 a can be less than the length L₂ of thereference waveguide 115 b. In this case, the ratio of L₂/L₁ can be about0.01 to about 0.9 (e.g., about 0.01, about 0.02, about 0.05, about 0.1,about 0.2, about 0.3, about 0.4, about 0.5, about 0.6, about 0.7, about0.8, or about 0.9, including any values and sub ranges in between).

The optical path length difference between the variable waveguide 115 aand the reference waveguide 115 b can be achieved in various ways. Forexample, the reference waveguide 115 b can have a straight shape and thevariable waveguide 115 a can include a delay section (also referred toas a detour section) so as to have a different length than the length ofthe reference waveguide 115 b. The delay section can include arectangular detour (shown in FIG. 1), a spiral detour, a zig-zag detouror any other configurations known in the art. Alternatively oradditionally, the variable waveguide 115 a can include a phase shifterto increase or decrease the optical path length.

The beam combiner 116 in the spectrometer 100 is employed to transmitthe first portion 106 a of the incident light 105 from either thevariable waveguide 115 or the reference waveguide 115 b to the detector140. In one example, the beam combiner 116 can include a directionalcoupler. In another example, the beam combiner 116 can include amulti-mode interferometer. In yet another example, the beam combiner 116can include a Y-splitter.

The beam splitter 130 can have similar structures as the beam combiner116 (e.g., directional coupler, multi-mode interferometer, orY-splitter), but the input and output ports in these structures can bereversed. For example, the input in a Y-splitter as used in the beamcombiner 116 can be used as the output in the beam splitter 130.

The detector 140 can include a charged coupled device (CCD) detector ora complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) detector. In oneexample, the detector 140 can be monolithically fabricated in or on thesubstrate where the waveguides (e.g., 115 a, 115 b) are fabricated. Inanother example, the detector 140 can be monolithically fabricated fromthe deposited films where the waveguides are fabricated. In yet anotherexample, the detector 140 can be fabricated on a different platform andthen bonded to the two interference arms 110 and 120 (or othercomponents) so as to form the spectrometer 100.

Spectrometers Including Cascades of Optical Switches

FIG. 2 shows a schematic of a spectrometer 200 including a cascade ofoptical switches to increase the tuning range (also referred to as thedynamic range) of optical path length differences. According toEquations (1) and (2), increasing the optical path length differencescan increase the resolution of the spectrometer 200. The spectrometer200 includes a beam splitter 230 to receive incident light 205 and splitthe incident light into a first portion and a second portion. The firstportion is transmitted to a first interference arm 210 and the secondportion is transmitted to a second interference arm 220. A beam combiner270 is coupled to the first interference arm 210 and the secondinterference arm 220 to receive the first portion of the incident light205 and the second portion of the incident light. A detector 240 is inoptical communication with the beam combiner 270 to detect interferencegenerated by the first portion and second portion of the incident light205.

The spectrometer 200 includes multiple optical switches 250(1), 250(2),. . . , 250(j) (collectively referred to as the optical switches 260),multiple variable waveguides 260 a(1), 260 a(2), . . . , 260a(j)(collectively referred to as the variable waveguides 260 a), andmultiple reference waveguides 260 b(1), 260 b(2), . . . , 260b(j)(collectively referred to as the variable waveguides 260 b). Theseoptical switches 250, variable waveguides 260 a, and referencewaveguides 260 b are distributed in the first interference arm 210 andthe second interference arm 220. More specifically, the firstinterference arm 210 includes a cascade of optical switches, labelled as250(1), 250(3), . . . , 250(j−1). Adjacent optical switches 250(n) and250(n+1) in the first interference arm 210 are optically connected by avariable waveguide 260 a(n) and a reference waveguide 260 b(n), wheren=1, 3, . . . , j−1. In one state of the optical switch 250(n), thefirst portion of the incident light 205 is directed to the variablewaveguide 260 a(n). In another state of the optical switch 250(n), thefirst portion of the incident light 205 is directed to the referencewaveguide 260 b(n). The first interference arm 210 also includes a beamcombiner 216 coupled to the variable waveguide 260 a(j−1) and thereference waveguide 260 b(j−1).

The second interference arm 220 includes a cascade of optical switches,labelled as 250(2), 250(4), . . . , 250(j). Adjacent optical switches250(m) and 250(m+1) in the second interference arm 220 are opticallyconnected by a variable waveguide 260 a(m) and a reference waveguide 260b(m), where m=1, 2, . . . , j−1. In one state of the optical switch250(m), the second portion of the incident light 205 is directed to thevariable waveguide 260 a(m). In another state of the optical switch250(m), the second portion of the incident light 205 is directed to thereference waveguide 260 b(m). The second interference arm 220 alsoincludes a beam combiner 226 coupled to the variable waveguide 260 a(j)and the reference waveguide 260 b(j).

Each pair of variable waveguides 260 a(i) and reference waveguides 260b(i), 1=1, 2, . . . , j, can have different optical path lengths.Therefore, the switching of each optical switch 250(i) can change theoptical path length difference between the first interference arm 210and the second interference arm 220. The total number of j opticalswitches 250 provides a total number of 2^(j) different combinations ofthe states of the optical switches 250. Accordingly, 2^(j) differentoptical path length differences can be generated.

In general, the optical path length of each variable waveguide 260 a(i)and reference waveguide 260 b(i), and their difference, can bearbitrarily chosen provided that a desired optical path lengthdifference between the two interferometer arms 210 and 220 can beobtained by the combination of the switching states of the opticalswitches 250. The desired optical path length difference can be, forexample, about 0.5 mm to about 5 mm (e.g., about 0.5 mm, about 1.0 mm,about 1.5 mm, about 2.0 mm, about 2.5 mm, about 3.0 mm, about 3.5 mm,about 4.0 mm, about 4.5 mm, or about 5.0 mm, including any values andsub ranges in between).

In one example, all the reference waveguides 260 b can have the sameoptical path length (denoted as L). The variable waveguides 260 a(n) inthe first interference arm 210 have optical path lengths greater than L,and the variable waveguides 260 a(m) in the second interference arm 220have optical path lengths less than L. In another example, the referencewaveguides 260 b can have different optical path lengths (see, e.g.,FIG. 5).

In one example, the total length of the reference waveguides 260 b(n) inthe first interference arm 210 can be the substantially equal to thetotal length of the reference waveguides 260 b(m) in the secondinterference arm 220. In this case, the optical path including all thereference waveguides 260 b(n) in the first interference arm 210 and theoptical path including all the reference waveguides 260 b(m) in thesecond interference arm 220 can be used as a starting point forspectroscopy. In another example, the total length of the referencewaveguides 260 b(n) in the first interference arm 210 can be differentfrom the total length of the reference waveguides 260 b(m) in the secondinterference arm 220.

The numeral i assigned to each optical switch 250(i) is also referred toas the “digit” of the corresponding optical switch 250(i) In oneexample, the optical path length difference between each pair ofvariable waveguide 260 a(i) and reference waveguide 260 b(i) can be2^(i-1)ΔL, where ΔL, is a unit length. In the first interference arm210, each variable waveguide 260 a(i) can be longer than thecorresponding reference waveguide 260 b(i) by 2^(i-1)ΔL, where 1=1, 3, .. . , j−1. In contrast, in the second interference arm 220, eachvariable waveguide 260 a(i) can be shorter than the correspondingreference waveguide 260 b(i) by 2^(i-1)ΔL, where 1=2, 4, . . . , j.

This configuration of length variation can achieve high spectralresolution of the spectrometer 200 and can also “digitize” the operationof the spectrometer 200. More specifically, the “off” state of theoptical switches 250 (corresponding to the situation when light passesthrough the reference waveguides 260 b) can be labelled with a binarynumber 0. The “on” state of the optical switches 250 (corresponding towhen light passes through the variable waveguides 260 a) can be labelledwith a binary number 1. In this case, the total length differencebetween the first interference arm 210 and the second interference arm220 is given as an integral multiple of ΔL, where the multiplicationfactor is a j-digit binary number whose digits specify the “on”/“off”states of the switches 250.

For example, j can be 4 with two optical switches in the firstinterference arm 210 and two optical switches in the second interferencearm 220. If the first optical switch 250(1) is on (state “1”), thesecond 250(2) is off (state “0”), the third 250(3) is on (state “1”),and the fourth 250(4) is off (state “0”), then the correspondingmultiplication factor, in binary form, is 1010. This multiplicationfactor, in decimal form, is 10, i.e. (1010)₂=(10)₁₀. The optical pathdifference between the first interference arm 210 and the secondinterference arm 220 is therefore 10ΔL.

The number of spectral channels (i.e. data points on a spectrographplotting light intensity as a function of wavelength or wave number) is2^(j). The maximum arm path length difference is (2^(j)−1)·ΔL,corresponding to the case when all switches are in the “on” state.Without being bound by any particular theory or mode of operation, thespectral resolution of the spectrometer in this case can be given by:

$\begin{matrix}{{\Delta\; v} = {{ \frac{1}{{n \cdot ( {2^{j} - 1} ) \cdot \Delta}\; L} \sim\frac{1}{2^{j}}} \cdot \frac{1}{{n \cdot \Delta}\; L}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$The spectral resolution in wavelength can be given by:

$\begin{matrix}{\delta\;{ \lambda \sim\frac{1}{2^{j}}}\frac{\lambda^{2}}{n_{eff}\Delta\; L}} & (4)\end{matrix}$Spectral bandwidth in the wavelength domain is:

$\begin{matrix}{{BW} = {\delta\;{\lambda \cdot { N \sim\frac{\lambda^{2}}{n_{eff}\Delta\; L}}}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$Equation (3) suggests that performance scaling of the spectrometer 200can be readily achieved by increasing the total number j of the opticalswitches 250. In practice, the total number j of the optical switches250 can be about 2 to about 50 (e.g., about 2, about 5, about 10, about15, about 20, about 25, about 30, about 35, about 40, about 45, or about50, including any values and sub ranges in between). In some cases, thetotal number j can also be greater than 50 to further improveresolution. The total length of the spectrometer 200 can be about 20 μmto about 20 cm (e.g., about 20 μm, about 50 μm, about 100 μm, about 200μm, about 500 μm, about 1 mm, about 2 mm, about 5 mm, about 1 cm, about2 cm, about 5 cm, about 10 cm, or about 20 cm).

As discussed above, the optical path length of the reference waveguides260 b can be about 2 μm to about 1 mm. Depending on the number ofwaveguides, the overall size (e.g., total length) of the spectrometer200 can be about 0.5 mm to about 10 cm (e.g., about 0.5 mm, about 1 mm,about 2 mm, about 5 mm, about 1 cm, about 2 cm, or about 10 cm,including any values and sub ranges in between).

The spectrometer 200 can further include one or more phase shiftersoperably coupled to one or more of the variable waveguides 260 a and/orthe reference waveguides 260 b. The phase shifter(s) can perform fineadjustment of optical path difference between the first interference arm210 and the second interference arm 220, while the optical switches 250can perform coarse adjustment of the optical path difference between thefirst interference arm 210 and the second interference arm 220. Thiscombination of phase shifters and optical switches 250 can reduce thestep size of the scanning of optical path length differences.

In FIG. 2, the spectrometer 200 has the same number of optical switches250 in the first interference arm 210 and in the second interference arm220. In another example, the number of the optical switches 250 in thefirst interference arm 210 can be different than the number of opticalswitches in the second interference arm 200.

The optical switches 250 shown in FIG. 2 are either 1×2 optical switches(e.g., 250(1) and 250(2)) or 2×2 optical switches. This approach can befurther generalized to M×M switches. Therefore, each optical switch candirect input light into M different waveguides having M differentoptical path lengths. By choosing varying waveguide lengths between theswitches, the resulting spectrometer can include a total number M^(j) ofdifferent optical states and hence in principle can support maximallyM^(j) spectral channels.

Calibration of Spectrometer

The spectrometer 200 is highly tolerant against fabrication errors, suchas dimension variations in component cross-sectional or length. Toaddress these fabrication variations, a calibration step can beperformed prior to using the spectrometer 200 for spectroscopicinterrogations. During the calibration, monochromatic light of unitintensity and at different wavelengths (λ₁, λ₂, . . . , λ_(N), whereN=2^(j) is the number of spectral channels) is sequentially launchedinto the input port of the spectrometer 200 (e.g., the splitter 230). Ateach wavelength λ_(i) the output intensity of the spectrometer 200 isrecorded at each distinctive combination of the switching states (e.g.,“on”/“off” states) of the j optical switches 250. Since there are atotal of j optical switches 250, there exist 2^(j) distinctivecombinations of the switch “on”/“off” states. The resulting calibrationdata at all wavelengths therefore form a 2^(j)×2^(j) calibration matrixM_(c). Each column of the matrix M_(c) gives the transmittance throughthe spectrometer 200 for a particular wavelength at different switch“on”/“off” state combinations, whereas each row of the matrix M_(c)specifies the transmittance versus wavelength at a particular “on”/“off”state configuration of the switches 250.

Since the spectrometer 200 usually operates in the linear optics regime,the spectrograph of an arbitrary polychromatic input (e.g., whosespectrum falls within the calibration wavelengths) can be solved asfollowing. First, a vector I(n)(n=1, 2, . . . , 2^(j)) can be created byrecording the transmittance at all 2^(j) distinctive combinations of theswitch “on”/“off” states. Then the vector I(n) can be multiplied withthe inverse of the calibration matrix M_(c) to solve the spectrograph,i.e., spectrograph=I*M_(c) ⁻¹.

In addition, once the calibration matrix M_(c) is acquired, the opticalswitches 250 can operate without high contrast ratio to solve thespectrograph. As a result, the operation bandwidth of the spectrometer200 is limited only by the single mode condition of the waveguides(e.g., variable waveguides 360 a and reference waveguides 360 b) in thespectrometer 200, rather than the operation bandwidth of the opticalswitches 250 or the beam splitters/combiners (e.g., 230, 270).Furthermore, the calibration matrix M_(c) can be invariant for a givenspectrometer 200 and therefore one calibration step can be used formultiple operations at a given operation wavelength range.

Spectrometers with Improved Signal-to-Noise Ratio

FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a spectrometer 300 including two detectors340 a and 340 b that can improve the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of thespectrometer 300. The spectrometer 300 includes a beam splitter 330 toreceive incident light 305 and split the incident light into a firstportion and a second portion. The first portion is transmitted to afirst interference arm 310 and the second portion is transmitted to asecond interference arm 320. A beam combiner 370 is coupled to the firstinterference arm 310 and the second interference arm 320 to receive thefirst portion of the incident light 305 and the second portion of theincident light 305. Instead of the 2×1 combiner as shown in FIG. 2, thebeam combiner 370 is a 2×2 combiner that has two output ports, whichdeliver a first output to the first detector 340 a and a second outputto the second detector 340 b. For example, the first output can be thein-phase portion of the light from the two arms 310 and 320, and thesecond output can be the out-of-phase portion of the light from the twoarms 310 and 320. The two outputs can provide different information.Combining the information can increase the S/N ratio by a factor of√{square root over (2)}. For example, linear transform, such as Fouriertransform, can be performed on each output (i.e. first output and secondoutput) to obtain respective spectrum (i.e., first spectrum and secondspectrum). The two spectra can then be averaged to produce a combinedresult with improved S/N ratio.

The first interference arm 310 and the second interference arm 320 ofthe spectrometer 300 can be substantially similar to the firstinterference arm 210 and the second interference arm 220, respectively,in the spectrometer 200 shown in FIG. 2. Generally, the firstinterference arm 310 includes optical switches 350(n), variablewaveguides 360 a(n), and reference waveguide 360 b(n), where n=1, 3, . .. , j−1. The second interference arm 320 includes optical switches350(m), variable waveguides 360 a(m), and reference waveguide 360 b(m),where m=2, 4, . . . , j. A first beam combiner 316 is included in thefirst interference arm 310 to transmit the first portion of the incidentlight to the beam combiner 370. A second beam combiner 316 is used inthe second interference arm 320 to transmit the second portion of theincident light to the beam combiner 370.

Spectrometers Including Mach-Zehnder Interferometers for OpticalSwitching

FIG. 4A shows a schematic of a spectrometer 400 including Mach-Zehnderinterferometers (MZIs) for optical switching. FIG. 4B shows a schematicof an optical switch 450 that can be used in the spectrometer 400. Thespectrometer 400 includes a beam splitter 430 to receive incident lightand split the incident light into a first interference arm 410 and asecond interference arm 420. The first interference arm 410 includesoptical switches 450(1), 450(3), and 450(5). Each of the optical switch450(n) (n=1, 3, 5) is coupled to a corresponding variable waveguide 460a(n) and a corresponding reference waveguide 460 b(n). The secondinterference arm 420 includes optical switches 450(2), 450(4), and450(6). Each of the optical switch 450(m) (m=1, 3, 5) is coupled to acorresponding variable waveguide 460 a(m) and a corresponding referencewaveguide 460 b(m). A beam combiner 470 is coupled to the firstinterference arm 410 and the second interference arm 420 to transmit theincident light to a detector (not shown in FIG. 4).

In FIG. 4A, the variable waveguide 460 a(n) (n=1, 3, 5) in the firstinterference arm 410 is longer than the corresponding referencewaveguide 460 b(n). In contrast, the variable waveguide 460 a(m) (m=2,4, 6) in the second interference arm 420 is shorter than thecorresponding reference waveguide 460 b(m). As discussed above, thisconfiguration offers a large tuning range of the optical path differencebetween the two arms 410 and 420 and therefore achieve high resolutionof in the spectrometer 400.

FIG. 4B shows the schematic of the optical switches 450. The opticalswitch 450 includes a first multi-mode interferometer (MMI) 452 and asecond MMI 455 coupled together by a first switch arm 453 a and a secondswitch arm 453 b. The first MMI 452 includes two input ports 451 a and451 b and two output ports connected to the two switch arms 453 a and453 b. The second MMI 455 includes two input ports connected to the twoswitch arms 453 a and 453 b and two output ports 456 a and 456 b. Theoptical switch 450 also includes three electrodes 454 a, 454 b, and 454c. The electrodes 454 a and 454 b are disposed on two sides of the firstswitch arm 453 a, while the electrodes 454 b and 454 c are disposed ontwo sides of the second switch arm 453 b.

In one example, electrical currents flow through each pair of theelectrodes (i.e., 454 a and 454 b, 454 b and 454 c) to change therefractive index of the corresponding switch arm (i.e., 453 a and 453 b,respectively). In another example, each pair of the electrodes (i.e.,454 a and 454 b, 454 b and 454 c) can apply an electric field such thatthe index of corresponding switch arm (453 a and 453 b, respectively)changes due to electro-optic effects.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic of a spectrometer 500 including MZIs foroptical switching and two detectors 540 a and 540 b for increasing theS/N ratio. The spectrometer 500 includes a beam splitter 530 to receiveincident light and split the incident light into a first interferencearm 510 and a second interference arm 520. The first interference arm510 includes optical switches 550(1), 550(3), and 550(5). Each of theoptical switch 550(n) (n=1, 3, 5) is coupled to a corresponding variablewaveguide 560 a(n) and a corresponding reference waveguide 560 b(n). Thesecond interference arm 520 includes optical switches 550(2), 550(4),and 550(6). Each of the optical switch 550(m) (m=1, 3, 5) is coupled toa corresponding variable waveguide 560 a(m) and a correspondingreference waveguide 560 b(m). A 2×2 combiner 570 is employed in thespectrometer 500 to receive the first portion of the incident light fromthe first interference arm 510 and the second portion of the incidentlight from the second interference arm 520. The two output ports of thecombiner 570 are coupled to the two detectors 540 a and 540 b. Asdiscussed above, using a 2×2 combiner and two detectors can increase theS/N ratio by √{square root over (2)}, compared to, for example, thespectrometer 400 shown in FIG. 4A.

In FIG. 5, the arrangement of the optical path length of each waveguide(e.g., 460 a and 460 b) is also different from the arrangement shown inFIG. 4A. More specifically, in the first interference arm 510, thevariable waveguides 560 a(1), 560 a(3), and 560 a(5) have the sameoptical path length, while the reference waveguides 560 b(1), 560 b(3),and 560 b(5) have different optical path lengths. The length of each ofthe reference waveguides 560 b(1), 560 b(3), and 560 b(5) in the firstinterference arm 510 is substantially equal to the reference waveguides560 b(2), 560 b(4), and 560 b(6), respectively, in the secondinterference arm. In this arrangement, the total waveguide length thatlight travels through can be shorter to achieve the same optical pathlength differences (e.g., compare to the arrangement in FIG. 4A).Therefore, optical losses due to propagation can be reduced.

Performance Scaling of Spectrometers Including Optical Switches

To investigate the scaling behavior of the spectrometers describedabove, an FTIR device including ridge waveguides and a total of jthermo-optic switches can be considered. The device can be fabricated ina silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Specifications of SOI photoniccomponents used in this analysis are as following. SOI ridge waveguides(e.g., used for the variable waveguides 260 a and reference waveguides260 b in FIG. 2) have an insertion lass of about 1.2 dB/cm and afootprint of about 0.5 μm in width and 0.22 μm in height. Thermo-opticphase shifters (e.g., used in optical switches 250) have an insertionloss of about 0.23 dB each and a footprint of about 61.6 μm in length.1×2 splitters/combiners have an insertion loss of about 0.27 dB and afootprint of about 2 μm in length and 1.2 μm in width. 2×2splitters/combiners have an insertion loss of about 0.15 dB and afootprint of about 152 μm in length.

The above numbers quoted for devices processed in commercialmulti-project-wafer (MPW) runs, which can be representative ofstate-of-the-art photonic manufacturing in a production-relevantsetting. To obtain sub-nm spectral resolution, the maximum path lengthdifference between the two interferometer arms (i.e., 2^(j)ΔL) can be onthe order of several millimeters or more. Therefore, the thermo-opticswitches and the splitters/combiners may make negligible contributionsto the overall device footprint. Each set of two optical switches, suchas 250(1) and 250(2) in FIG. 2, form a “stage”. The reference waveguides(e.g., 260 b) in each “stage” can be constrained by the condition thatthe shorter arm lengths (e.g., the length of the variable waveguides 260a) are greater than zero.

With the above numbers, the reference arm length (in μm) can be givenas:

$\begin{matrix}{L_{tot} = {( {{\Delta\; L} + {4\;\Delta\; L} + {16\;\Delta\; L} + \ldots + {2^{j - 2}\Delta\; L}} ) + {\frac{j}{2} \cdot L_{p\; s}} + {( {j - 1} ) \cdot L_{2 \times 2}} + {{4 \cdot { L_{1 \times 2} \sim\frac{2^{j}}{3}}}\Delta\; L} + {j \cdot 182.8} - 144}} & (6)\end{matrix}$where L_(PS)=61.6 μm, L_(2×2)=152 μm, and L_(1×2)=2 μm are based on thecomponent specifications listed above.

The total insertion loss (IL, given in dB) can be given as:

$\begin{matrix}{{IL} = {{{\frac{j}{2} \cdot {IL}_{P\; S}} + {( {j - 1} ) \cdot {IL}_{2 \times 2}} + {4 \cdot {IL}_{1 \times 2}} + {\frac{2^{j}}{3}\Delta\;{L \cdot {IL}_{WG}}}} = {{0.265j} + 0.97 + {\frac{2^{j}}{3}\Delta\;{L \cdot 1.2} \times 10^{- 4}}}}} & (7)\end{matrix}$where IL_(PS)=0.23 dB, IL_(2×2)=0.15 dB, IL_(1×2)=0.28 dB, andIL_(WG)=1.2×10⁻⁴ dB/cm.

A specific example of an on-chip spectrum analyzer covering the entire Cand L bands (1530-1625 nm wavelengths) can also be examined. Here theeffective refractive index of the waveguides n_(eff)=2.55, the operationwavelength λ=1577.5 nm, and ΔL=10.3 μm.

FIGS. 6A-6C plot the insertion loss, the total length, and theresolution, respectively, of the resulting spectrometer as a function ofthe number of stages. For example, with 12 stages (i.e., 12 opticalswitches and therefore 2²⁴ channels), the bandwidth of the spectrometerBW is about 95 nm, the resolution of the spectrometer δλ is about 0.023nm, the total insertion loss IL is about 5.8 dB, and the total lengthL_(tot) is about 1.6 cm. These performance specifications are superiorcompared to commercial C/L band optical channel monitors.

Spectrometers Including Optical Switches for Multi-Mode

FIG. 7A shows a schematic of a spectrometer 700 that works withmulti-mode input by connecting interferometers in parallel. Thespectrometer 700 includes a mode transformer 780 to transform themulti-mode incident light into a multiplicity of single-mode beams. Eachsingle mode beam is directed to a corresponding single mode waveguidecoupled to a corresponding beam splitter 730(i), i=1, 2, 3, 4 in FIG. 7.The spectrometer 700 also includes multiple interference arms 710(1) to710(4). Each of the interference arm includes a cascade of opticalswitches connected by pairs of variable waveguides and referencewaveguides. These interference arms can be substantially similar to theinterference arm 210 shown in FIG. 2 and detailed descriptions are notrepeated here.

The first single mode beam is directed to the first beam splitter730(1), which splits the first single mode into two portions, with thefirst portion coupled into the interference arm 710(1) and the secondportion coupled into the interference arm 710(2). A 2×2 beam combiner770(1) is in optical communication with the two arms 710(1) and 710(2)to collect the two portions of the first single mode beam and transmitthe recombined beam to two detectors 740 a(1) and 740 b(1). In otherwords, the first beam splitter 730(1), the two interference arms 710(1)and 710(2), the beam combiner 770(1), and the two detectors 740 a(1) and740 b(1) form a first interferometer to perform spectroscopy on thefirst single mode beam split out of the multi-mode incident light.

Similarly, the second beam splitter 730(2), the two interference arms710(2) and 710(3), the beam combiner 770(2), and the two detectors 740a(2) and 740 b(2) form a second interferometer to perform spectroscopyfrom the second single mode beam split out of the multi-mode incidentlight. The third beam splitter 730(3), the two interference arms 710(3)and 710(4), the beam combiner 770(3), and the two detectors 740 a(3) and740 b(3) form a third interferometer to perform spectroscopy from thethird single mode beam split out of the multi-mode incident light.

In the spectrometer 700, adjacent interferometers share one interferencearm to maintain the high compactness of the device. For example, thefirst interferometer and the second interferometer share theinterference arm 710(2), and the second interferometer and the thirdinterferometer share the interference arm 710(3).

FIG. 7A shows only four interference arms for illustrative purposesonly. In practice, the number of interference arms 710 can depend on thenumber of spatial modes in the incident light. For example, the numberof interference arms 710 can be greater than 10 (e.g., greater than 10,greater than 20, greater than 50, or greater than 100, including anyvalues and sub ranges in between). Using multiple interferometers formulti-mode incident light can improve the system's optical throughputwhen working with spatially non-coherent sources.

FIG. 7B shows a schematic of a mode transformer 780 that can be used inthe spectrometer 700 shown in FIG. 7A. The mode transformer 780 includesa multi-mode waveguide core 782 to receive the multi-mode incidentlight. A tapered region 784 is coupled to the multi-mode waveguide core782 to split each single mode component into a corresponding single modewaveguide core 786(1) to 786(5) (collectively referred to as the singlemode region 786). In one example, the single mode region 786 can includeseparate single-mode fibers (SMFs) fused together to form a single glassbody. The tapered region 784 can be generated by stretching or any othermethods known in the art. At the end, the tapered region 784 forms afused multimode fiber (MMF) core. Low-index materials (not shown in FIG.7B) can be used to surround the multi-mode waveguide core 782 to form acladding. This configuration is also referred to as photonic lantern.More details of photonic lanterns can be found in Timothy Birks et al.,“The photonic lantern,” Advances in Optics and Photonics 7.2 (2015):107-167, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

Methods of Spectroscopy Using Optical Switches

FIG. 8 illustrates a method 800 of spectroscopy using optical switches.The method 800 includes splitting incident light into a first portionand a second portion, at step 810. The first portion of the incidentlight is coupled into a first interference arm at step 820. The firstinterference arm includes a first optical switch, a first referencewaveguide having a first optical path length L₁, and a first variablewaveguide having a second optical path length L₂ different than thefirst optical path length L₁. At step 830, the second portion of theincident light is coupled into a second interference arm.

The method 800 also includes two steps of switch actuation 840 and 860.At step 840, the first optical switch is actuated to couple the firstportion of the incident light through the first reference waveguide soas to generate a first optical path difference between the firstinterference arm and the second interference arm. With this firstoptical path length difference, a first interference between the firstportion and second portion of the incident light is detected, at step850. At step 860, the first optical switch is actuated again to couplethe first portion of the incident light through the first variablewaveguide so as to generate a second optical path difference between thefirst interference arm and the second interference arm. The method 800further includes, at step 870, detecting second interference between thefirst portion and second portion of the incident light with the secondoptical path length difference.

The second interference arm can also include a second optical switch anda second pair of variable waveguide and reference waveguide. In thiscase, the method 800 can include coupling the second portion through thesecond optical switch. The second optical switched is actuated topropagate the second portion of the incident light through the secondreference waveguide having a third optical path length L₃. The secondoptical switch can be actuated again to propagate the second portion ofthe incident light through a second variable waveguide having a fourthoptical path length L₄, different than the third optical path length L₃.In this case the dynamic range of the optical path difference betweenthe two interference arms is increased.

To further increase the dynamic range of optical path difference, thefirst interference arm can include j/2 optical switches, each of whichis coupled to a corresponding variable waveguide and referencewaveguide. Accordingly, the method 800 includes coupling the firstportion of the incident light through the j/2 optical switches (where jis an even integer). The method 800 also includes actuating an nthoptical switch in the j/2 optical switches to transmit the first portionof the incident light into an nth reference waveguide, where n=1, 2, . .. , j/2. The method 800 further includes actuating the nth opticalswitch in the j/2 optical switches to transmit the first portion of theincident light into an nth variable waveguide.

Similarly, the second interference arm can also include j/2 opticalswitches, each of which is coupled to a corresponding variable waveguideand reference waveguide. The method 800 further includes coupling thesecond portion of the incident light through the j/2 optical switches,actuating an mth optical switch in the j/2 optical switches to transmitthe second portion of the incident light into an mth reference waveguide(where m=1, 2, . . . , j/2), and actuating the mth optical switch in thej/2 optical switches to transmit the second portion of the incidentlight into an mth variable waveguide. At each combination in the 2^(j)switching state configurations of the j optical switches, thecorresponding interference of the first portion and second portion ofthe incident light is detected for further processing to extractspectral information of the incident light.

In some cases, transmitting the first portion of the incident light intothe nth variable waveguide includes guiding the first portion of theincident light through an nth variable optical path length. Transmittingthe first portion of the incident light into the nth reference waveguideincludes guiding the first portion of the incident light through an nthreference optical path length less than the nth variable optical pathlength. Transmitting the second portion of the incident light into themth variable waveguide includes guiding the second portion of theincident light through an mth variable optical path length. Andtransmitting the second portion of the incident light into the mthreference waveguide includes guiding the second portion of the incidentlight through an mth reference optical path length greater than the mthvariable optical path length.

In some cases, transmitting the first portion of the incident light intothe nth reference waveguide includes guiding the first portion of theincident light through an optical path length L. Transmitting the firstportion of the incident light into the nth variable waveguide includesguiding the first portion of the incident light through an nth variableoptical path length L+2^(2(n-1))ΔL. Transmitting the second portion ofthe incident light into the mth reference waveguide includes guiding thesecond portion of the incident light through the optical path length L.And transmitting the second portion of the incident light into the mthvariable waveguide includes guiding the second portion of the incidentlight through L−2^(2m-1)ΔL.

In some cases, the j/2 optical switches in the first interference armand the j/2 optical switches define 2^(j) switch settings. The method800 further includes, for each distinct switch setting in the 2^(j)switch settings, splitting a corresponding monochromatic light beamhaving a distinct wavelength λ₁ into a corresponding first portion and acorresponding second portion, where i=1, 2, . . . , 2^(j). Thecorresponding first portion is guided through the first interference armand the corresponding second portion is guided through the secondinterference arm. The method 800 further includes detecting interferencebetween the corresponding first portion and the corresponding secondportion so as to generate a 2^(j)×2^(j) calibration matrix.

In some cases, the method 800 further includes coupling the firstportion of the incident light from the first interference arm through abeam combiner and coupling the second portion of the incident light fromthe second interference arm through the beam combiner. A first output ofthe beam combiner is detected using a first detector to generate a firstsignal and a second output of the beam combiner is detected using asecond detector to generate a second signal. The first signal and thesecond signal are then combined to estimate the spectral information ofthe incident light.

CONCLUSION

While various inventive embodiments have been described and illustratedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision avariety of other means and/or structures for performing the functionand/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantagesdescribed herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications isdeemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments describedherein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations describedherein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters,dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon thespecific application or applications for which the inventive teachingsis/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalentsto the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is,therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presentedby way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claimsand equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practicedotherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventiveembodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individualfeature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein.In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent,is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

Also, various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods,of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of themethod may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments maybe constructed in which acts are performed in an order different thanillustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, eventhough shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood tocontrol over dictionary definitions, definitions in documentsincorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the definedterms.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should beunderstood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. Forexample, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall beinterpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, butalso including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and,optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated tothe contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when usedin the claims, “consisting of” will refer to the inclusion of exactlyone element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or”as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusivealternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded byterms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of” “only one of” or“exactly one of” “Consisting essentially of” when used in the claims,shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitionalphrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of” and the like are tobe understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limitedto. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consistingessentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases,respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual ofPatent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A spectrometer, comprising: a beam splitterto split incident light into a first portion and a second portion; afirst interference arm, in optical communication with the beam splitter,to receive the first portion of the incident light, the firstinterference arm comprising: first optical switches, each first opticalswitch switchable between a first state and a second state; firstvariable waveguides and first reference waveguides, wherein each firstoptical switch is coupled to a corresponding first variable waveguideand a corresponding first reference waveguide, each first variablewaveguide to receive the first portion of the incident light when itscorresponding first optical switch is in its first state, each firstreference waveguide to receive the first portion of the incident lightwhen its corresponding first optical switch is in its second state,wherein an optical path length of each first variable waveguide islonger than an optical path length of its corresponding first referencewaveguide; a second interference arm, in optical communication with thebeam splitter, to receive the second portion of the incident light, thesecond interference arm comprising: second optical switches, each secondoptical switch switchable between a first state and a second state;second variable waveguides and second reference waveguides, wherein eachsecond optical switch is coupled to a corresponding second variablewaveguide and a corresponding second reference waveguide, each secondvariable waveguide to receive the second portion of the incident lightwhen its corresponding second optical switch is in its first state, eachsecond reference waveguide to receive the second portion of the incidentlight when its corresponding second optical switch is in its secondstate, wherein an optical path length of each second variable waveguideis shorter than an optical path length of its corresponding secondreference waveguide; and a detector, in optical communication with thefirst interference arm and the second interference arm, to detectinterference of the first portion of the incident light from the firstinterference arm and the second portion of the incident light from thesecond interference arm.
 2. The spectrometer of claim 1, wherein eachfirst optical switch and each second optical switch is a Mach-Zehnderinterferometer (MZI).
 3. The spectrometer of claim 1, wherein each firstoptical switch and each second optical switch includes: a first switcharm; a second switch arm; a first electrode, in electrical communicationwith the first switch arm, and a second electrode, in electricalcommunication with the first switch arm and the second switch arm, tomodulate a refractive index of the first switch arm; and a thirdelectrode, in electrical communication with the second switch arm, tomodulate a refractive index of the second switch arm with the secondelectrode.
 4. The spectrometer of claim 3, wherein each first opticalswitch further includes: a first multi-mode interferometer (MMI)including a first input port to receive the first portion of theincident light and a pair of first output ports to output the firstportion of the incident light via the pair of first output ports; and asecond MMI including a pair of second input ports to receive the firstportion of the incident light from the first MMI and a second outputport to output the first portion of the incident light, wherein thefirst switch arm optically couples one of the first output ports to oneof the second input ports, and wherein the second switch arm opticallycouples the other of the first output ports to the other of the secondinput ports.
 5. The spectrometer of claim 3, wherein each second opticalswitch further includes: a first multi-mode interferometer (MIMI)including a first input port to receive the second portion of theincident light and a pair of first output ports to output the secondportion of the incident light via the pair of first output ports; and asecond MMI including a pair of second input ports to receive the secondportion of the incident light from the first MMI and a second outputport to output the second portion of the incident light, wherein thefirst switch arm optically couples one of the first output ports to oneof the second input ports, and wherein the second switch arm opticallycouples the other of the first output ports to the other of the secondinput ports.
 6. The spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising a beamcombiner coupled to the first interference arm, the second interferencearm, and the detector, to transmit the first portion of the incidentlight from the first interference arm and the second portion of theincident light from the second interference arm to the detector.
 7. Amethod of spectroscopy, the method comprising: splitting incident lightinto a first portion and a second portion; coupling the first portion ofthe incident light into a first interference arm, the first interferencearm including: first optical switches; first variable waveguides andfirst reference waveguides, wherein an optical path length of each firstvariable waveguide is longer than an optical path length of itscorresponding first reference waveguide, the coupling including couplingthe first portion of the incident light into each first variablewaveguide when its corresponding first optical switch is in a firststate, the coupling further including coupling the first portion of theincident light into each first reference waveguide when itscorresponding first optical switch is in a second state; coupling thesecond portion of the incident light into a second interference arm, thesecond interference arm including: second optical switches; secondvariable waveguides and second reference waveguides, wherein an opticalpath length of each second variable waveguide is shorter than an opticalpath length of its corresponding second reference waveguide, thecoupling including coupling the second portion of the incident lightinto each second variable waveguide when its corresponding secondoptical switch is in a first state, the coupling further includingcoupling the second portion of the incident light into each secondreference waveguide when its corresponding second optical switch is in asecond state; actuating the first optical switches to couple the firstportion of the incident light through at least one of the first variablewaveguides, or at least one of the first reference waveguides, orcombinations thereof; actuating the second optical switches to couplethe second portion of the incident light through at least one of thesecond variable waveguides, or at least one of the second referencewaveguides, or combinations thereof; and detecting interference betweenthe first portion of the incident light from the first interference armand the second portion of the incident light from the secondinterference arm.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein each first opticalswitch and each second optical switch is a Mach-Zehnder interferometer(MZI).
 9. A spectrometer, comprising: a beam splitter to split incidentlight into a first portion and a second portion; a first interferencearm, in optical communication with the beam splitter, to receive thefirst portion of the incident light, the first interference armcomprising: first optical switches, each first optical switch switchablebetween a first state and a second state; first variable waveguides andfirst reference waveguides, wherein each first optical switch is coupledto a corresponding first variable waveguide and a corresponding firstreference waveguide, each first variable waveguide to receive the firstportion of the incident light when its corresponding first opticalswitch is in its first state, each first reference waveguide to receivethe first portion of the incident light when its corresponding firstoptical switch is in its second state, wherein the first variablewaveguides have identical optical path lengths and the first referencewaveguides have different optical path lengths; a second interferencearm, in optical communication with the beam splitter, to receive thesecond portion of the incident light, the second interference armcomprising: second optical switches, each second optical switchswitchable between a first state and a second state; second variablewaveguides and second reference waveguides, wherein each second opticalswitch is coupled to a corresponding second variable waveguide and acorresponding second reference waveguide, each second variable waveguideto receive the second portion of the incident light when itscorresponding second optical switch is in its first state, each secondreference waveguide to receive the second portion of the incident lightwhen its corresponding second optical switch is in its second state,wherein each second reference waveguide has an optical path lengthidentical to the optical path length of the corresponding firstreference waveguide; and a detector in optical communication with thefirst interference arm and the second interference arm, to detectinterference of the first portion of the incident light from the firstinterference arm and the second portion of the incident light from thesecond interference arm.
 10. The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein eachfirst optical switch and each second optical switch is a Mach-Zehnderinterferometer (MZI).
 11. The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein eachfirst optical switch and each second optical switch includes: a firstswitch arm; a second switch arm; a first electrode, in electricalcommunication with the first switch arm, and a second electrode, inelectrical communication with the first switch arm and the second switcharm, to modulate a refractive index of the first switch arm; and a thirdelectrode, in electrical communication with the second switch arm, tomodulate a refractive index of the second switch arm with the secondelectrode.
 12. The spectrometer of claim 11, wherein each first opticalswitch further includes: a first multi-mode interferometer (MMI)including a first input port to receive the first portion of theincident light and a pair of first output ports to output the firstportion of the incident light via the pair of first output ports; and asecond MMI including a pair of second input ports to receive the firstportion of the incident light from the first MMI and a second outputport to output the first portion of the incident light, wherein thefirst switch arm optically couples one of the first output ports to oneof the second input ports, and wherein the second switch arm opticallycouples the other of the first output ports to the other of the secondinput ports.
 13. The spectrometer of claim 11, wherein each secondoptical switch further includes: a first multi-mode interferometer (MMI)including a first input port to receive the second portion of theincident light and a pair of first output ports to output the secondportion of the incident light via the pair of first output ports; and asecond MMI including a pair of second input ports to receive the secondportion of the incident light from the first MMI and a second outputport to output the second portion of the incident light, wherein thefirst switch arm optically couples one of the first output ports to oneof the second input ports, and wherein the second switch arm opticallycouples the other of the first output ports to the other of the secondinput ports.
 14. The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein each first opticalswitch includes: a first multi-mode interferometer (MMI) including afirst input port and a pair of first output ports, to receive the firstportion of the incident light via the first input port and to output thefirst portion of the incident light via the pair of first output ports;a second MMI including a pair of second input ports and a second outputport, to receive the first portion of the incident light from the firstMMI via the pair of second input ports and to output the first portionof the incident light via the second output port; a first switch arm tooptically couple one of the first output ports to one of the secondinput ports; a second switch arm to optically couple the other of thefirst output ports to the other of the second input ports; a firstelectrode and a second electrode disposed about the first switch arm tomodulate a refractive index of the first switch arm; and a thirdelectrode disposed about the second switch arm along with the secondelectrode, to modulate a refractive index of the second switch arm. 15.The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein each second first optical switchincludes: a first multi-mode interferometer (MMI) including a firstinput port and a pair of first output ports, to receive the secondportion of the incident light via the first input port and to output thesecond portion of the incident light via the pair of first output ports;a second MMI including a pair of second input ports and a second outputport, to receive the second portion of the incident light from the firstMMI via the pair of second input ports and to output the second portionof the incident light via the second output port; a first switch arm tooptically couple one of the first output ports to one of the secondinput ports; a second switch arm to optically couple the other of thefirst output ports to the other of the second input ports; a firstelectrode and a second electrode disposed about the first switch arm tomodulate a refractive index of the first switch arm; and a thirdelectrode disposed about the second switch arm along with the secondelectrode, to modulate a refractive index of the second switch arm. 16.The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein the detector is a first detector,further comprising: a second detector in optical communication with thefirst interference arm and the second interference arm; and a beamcombiner in optical communication with first interference arm, thesecond interference arm, the first detector, and the second detector,to: deliver an in-phase portion of the interference between the firstportion of the incident light from the first interference arm and thesecond portion of the incident light from the second interference arm tothe first detector; and deliver an out-of-phase portion of theinterference between the first portion of the incident light from thefirst interference arm and the second portion of the incident light fromthe second interference arm to the second detector.
 17. A method forspectroscopy, comprising: splitting incident light into a first portionand a second portion; coupling the first portion of the incident lightinto a first interference arm, the first interference arm comprising:first optical switches; first variable waveguides and first referencewaveguides, wherein the first variable waveguides have identical opticalpath lengths and the first reference waveguides have different opticalpath lengths, the coupling including coupling the first portion of theincident light into each first variable waveguide when its correspondingfirst optical switch is in a first state, the coupling further includingcoupling the first portion of the incident light into each firstreference waveguide when its corresponding first optical switch is in asecond state; coupling the second portion of the incident light into asecond interference arm, the second interference arm comprising: secondoptical switches; second variable waveguides and second referencewaveguides, wherein each second reference waveguide has an optical pathlength identical to the optical path length of the corresponding firstreference waveguide, the coupling including coupling the second portionof the incident light into each second variable waveguide when itscorresponding second optical switch is in a first state, the couplingfurther including coupling the second portion of the incident light intoeach second reference waveguide when its corresponding second opticalswitch is in a second state; and actuating the first optical switches tocouple the first portion of the incident light through at least one ofthe first variable waveguides, or at least one of the first referencewaveguides, or combinations thereof; actuating the second opticalswitches to couple the second portion of the incident light through atleast one of the second variable waveguides, or at least one of thesecond reference waveguides, or combinations thereof; and detectinginterference between the first portion of the incident light from thefirst interference arm and the second portion of the incident light fromthe second interference arm.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein eachfirst optical switch and each second optical switch is a Mach-Zehnderinterferometer (MZI).
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the detectingincludes detecting an in-phase portion of the interference between thefirst portion of the incident light from the first interference arm andthe second portion of the incident light from the second interferencearm, the method further comprising: detecting an out-of-phase portion ofthe interference between the first portion of the incident light fromthe first interference arm and the second portion of the incident lightfrom the second interference arm.